"I agree with you not only in their performance, but they showed character as well," he said when asked if his younger players had performed well.

"It is not easy to express yourself at 18 years of age. To play in such a heated atmosphere shows how much resilience to stress (the players have), which is an important quality at our level.

"I believe that it was a very difficult game with high intensity in a very heated and supportive atmosphere for the local team and we kept going and trying to win the game and them as well in fairness."